The Nariokotome Homo Erectus SkeletonAlan Walker, Richard E. Leakey On the slopes of the Nariokotome sand river in Kenya, sifting through sediments more than a million years old, Kamoya Kimeu uncovered a small piece of a skull. Piece followed piece--facial bones, teeth, vertebrae--and little by little paleontologists put together the most complete early hominid ever discovered, a Homo erectus skeleton christened the Nariokotome boy. This phenomenal find, a milestone in the history of paleoanthropology, is fully documented in this remarkable book. Beautifully illustrated and richly descriptive, The Nariokotome Homo erectus Skeleton takes us into the field and the laboratory, and into the far reaches of prehistory, to show us what the fossilized remains of a young boy can tell us about our beginnings. |
Contents
INTRODUCTION | 1 |
MICROSTRATIGRAPHY AND PALEOENVIRONMENTS | 21 |
TAPHONOMY | 40 |
THE FAUNAL CONTEXT | 59 |
THE SPECIMEN | 66 |
THE DENTITION | 165 |
ANALYTICAL STUDIES | 193 |
THE PHYSIOLOGICAL AGE OF KNMWT 15000 | 217 |
BODY SIZE AND BODY SHAPE | 261 |
THE THORACIC AND LUMBAR VERTEBRAE | 273 |
THE RIB CAGE | 286 |
Jellema Bruce Latimer and Alan Walker | 294 |
THE VERTEBRAL CANAL | 383 |
A MORPHOMETRIC STUDY OF FACIAL GROWTH | 409 |
A NOTE ON ACCESSION NUMBERS | 431 |
THE RECONSTRUCTION OF THE PELVIS | 227 |
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Common terms and phrases
angle anteriorly apes articular facets Australopithecus bi-iliac breadth body weight brain canal height canal width canine caudal cervical chimpanzees costal cranial curvature cusp dental age distal dorsal early African early hominids endocasts epiphyses estimate evolution excavation facial growth Feibel femur FIGURE foramen fovea frontal groove hominid Homo erectus Homo habilis Homo sapiens incisor inferior KNM-ER KNM-WT Koobi Koobi Fora Lake Turkana laminae lateral view Leakey lingual lobes lower lumbar vertebra male mandible Mean S.D. measured mediolaterally mesial modern humans modern primates molars morphology Nariokotome Okote Omo River PAN TROGLODYTES parietal pelvis posterior primates range ratio reconstructed region relative root Ruff sacral canal sample similar skeletal skeleton skull species specimens spinal cord spine stature superior superoinferiorly surface suture Table teeth tephra thoracic vertebra tibia tion tooth transverse Tuff Turkana Basin upper vertebral canal vertebral column view of thoracic Walker Zhoukoudian